Cost: Single films are $13.75 for the public, $11.75 for JCC members and $10.75-$12.75 for seniors. For information on opening- and closing-night films, festival packages and discounted tickets, call (858) 362-1348 or check website.

The organizers of the San Diego Jewish Film Festival have a lot on their plate for their 22nd season, running Feb. 9-19, with 48 films from around the world screening at five locations, dozens of special guests and, of course, the thousands of festivalgoers from around the county and beyond who are eager to see what the popular festival will serve up this year. But for festival producer Sandra Lynn Kraus and her 65-member committee of volunteers, the 11-day whirlwind of film festivities is the result of a year-round labor of love.

“The support we get from the Jewish community here is deep,” Kraus said, adding that 12 committee members began the long process of wading through more than 350 submissions last April, ultimately narrowing the selection to 80 films. “At that point, we duke it out in our boardroom. Everyone has their favorites, and we narrow it down. It’s a tremendous amount of work that our volunteers put into the festival, and it shows. When I meet up with my colleagues around the country, they marvel,” Kraus said.

That commitment has helped make the San Diego Jewish Film Festival, presented by the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture, the fourth-largest Jewish film festival in the country, trailing closely behind San Francisco, Atlanta and Boston (there are more than 80 Jewish film festivals nationwide). After last year’s event filled more than 16,000 seats — almost a 12 percent increase from the year before — perhaps Atlanta and Boston should start watching their backs.

While the 2012 festival will showcase about the same number of films as last year, organizers have doubled the number of screenings, giving audiences more opportunities to see the carefully selected films. They’ve also expanded their offerings in North County, which saw sold-out crowds in 2011.

Filling those silver screens will be a selection of features, documentaries and short-subject films that illuminate the diversity of the Jewish experience and culture, from a moving documentary about a 130-year-old Jewish cemetery in Berlin (“In Heaven Underground: The Wissensee Jewish Cemetery”) to a bicultural romantic comedy that explores immigration issues (“Salsa Tel Aviv”). Many of the films are accompanied by their directors or local experts, who will offer insight into the films’ subjects and themes.

While many of the films focus on sobering topics, one featured speaker is showing up just for laughs. He’s Mike Reiss, writer and producer of “The Simpsons,” and about as close as you can get to an expert on how Jews are portrayed in cartoons. An accomplished public speaker who has traveled the world sharing his experiences on “The Simpsons” and the two other animated series he created, “The Critic” and “Queer Duck,” the Emmy and Peabody Award winner will present Jewish-themed episodes of “The Simpsons,” “South Park” and “Family Guy,” and give the audience a taste of the wacky antics from the writers room. The one-time-only event called “Jews in Toons” takes place at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 16 at Reading Cinemas Town Square in Clairemont.

Having worked in television for nearly 30 years, Reiss certainly has some perspective on the role Jewish writers have played in the medium’s evolution. “When I started writing for TV in 1983, literally everyone was Jewish. And those numbers have just dwindled over time,” he said. Why the decline? Reiss offered his theory, “There are a lot of professions where Jews, through history, would get marginalized into, and then they’d achieve great success and everybody would pile into it. Comic books were especially like that. All the great comic book heroes were created by Jewish writers, and since they made it into an art form, everybody wants to write comic books.”

Reiss also noted that the three series in his presentation were created by Christians, but developed by Jews, including the “The Simpsons,” the brainchild of Matt Groening and developed for television by Sam Simon. But Reiss doesn’t put too much stock in his “odd observation.” In fact, he attributes much of “The Simpsons’ ” Jewish-themed content to his Catholic writing partner, Al Jean, who now runs the series for Fox.

“Al just loves the Jewish stuff. He was the reason there would be so much Jewish content on the show,” Reiss cheerfully explained in reference to the show’s infamous Jewish character, Krusty the Clown. “The Jewish writers would always be a little sensitive and wonder, ‘Gee, is anyone interested in this?’ And the Christians would respond, ‘Oh, Jews are hilarious! The way they talk, and their customs. The way a Rabbi dresses is so funny.”

While some might find this sentiment at least a little offensive, a comedy writer like Reiss takes it all in good fun. “It was sort of nice to know something,” Reiss said. “Al would say, ‘All right, what would Krusty say about this? What’s a good Jewish term?’ And you’d be happy, saying ‘Hey, I know the Yiddish word he would say!’ And you’d throw out some Jewish bit of arcana. It was fun to be finally putting all those years of Hebrew school to good use.”